Ipswich High School - Tiger Yearbook (Ipswich, MA)

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...Early Hosiery, Lace, and... Silk Industries in Ipswich by Frederick Benedix Jr. F or more than a century hosiery has been an essential industry in the town of Ipswich ; it is there- fore natural that an industry of such long and continued standing should be of interest to the townspeople. Most of us, of course, remember well the Ipswich Mills, and we are, for the most part, familiar with the present Hayward Hosiery Company. Nevertheless, the beginning and the colorful history of such an industry are relatively unknown yet very in- teresting. Therefore, I have at- tempted to trace the development of the hosiery industries in Ipswich and to incorporate in this history early silk and lace, the sister indus- tries of hosiery. The hosiery business was trans- ported to America from England, and in order to trace the beginning of the hosiery industry in Ipswich, we must necessarily cross the ocean to Nottinghamshire. It will be re- called that the great social revolu- tion of England continued through the latter part of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The fac- tories were filled with maltreated, underpaid laborers, who were be- ginning to demand sanitary work- ing conditions and better pay. Thus it was in Nottinghamshire, where many hosiery and lace factories had been established. At length, on March 11, 1811, a group of unem- ployed men began the bloody Lud- dite strikes ; these riots, which com- menced at Arnold, rapidly spread through all Nottinghamshire. Own- ers of mills were killed and their property destroyed ; in all over a thousand stocking frames were smashed and made useless. This general confusion lasted for a peri- od of five years and absolutely blotted out, for the time being, the lace and hosiery industries in Not- tinghamshire. As a result of these riots and this destruction, thousands of employ- ees including weavers, machinists, and others were thrown out of jobs with little or no prospect for the future. Of these some of the most ambitious determined to emigrate to America and establish their re- spective trades ; this emigration took place in 1818-1822. However, the British government foresaw this movement and, not wishing to lose a valuable and promising industry, did its utmost to prevent any trans- portation of the hosiery industry to America. Exorbitant export duties were placed on the machinery and tools necessary to stocking making, and exceedingly heavy fines were exacted on those caught smuggling machinery. Nevertheless, in spite of the ef- forts of the British Government, a stocking machine was smuggled to America and finally set up in Water- town, Massachusetts. According to the story this machine, packed in two boxes, had a very exciting trip to America. Buried in a cargo of salt, it was smuggled through the authorities at Liverpool, whence it experienced a stormy voyage across the ocean. It was in 1822 after a few years of manufacture in Watertown that 25

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Farther to the south, Chocorua’s shape is silhouetted against the horizon, everlasting memorial to the Indian chief whose name it bears. He jumped off the top because he preferred to die rather than see the v hite man invade his last retreat, the mountains he loved. I think I can understand the way he felt. There are innumerable other land- marks and beautiful places in the mountains all of which are equally lovely or interesting as the case may be. I apologize to any other White Mountain devotees in the audience if 1 have neglected to mention their favorite peak or to sing the praises of their familiar haunts. And so New Hampshire is filled to overflowing with people who love her. They fly down the steep moun- tain sides over the crisp white snow in winter with loud cries of “Track” as they dodge between the black pine trees on their slender hickory shafts. At the first spring breeze, in their longing for a glimpse of the mountains, they back out the car and trek north, disregarding the back-roads mud for which New Hampshire is famous. In the sum- mer, west winds, blue skies reflect- ed in sparkling lakes, and pine- covered peaks send out an irresisti- ble call. Fall, perhaps the most beautiful of all the seasons, comes with the concentrated glory of red and yellow hill sides, crisp north- west winds, frosty mornings, and air so clear that it seems sometimes as if you might reach out and touch the top of Mt. Washington. Whittier loved the mountains and said so more eloquently and clearly than most of us can, although we all share his feelings. This is what he said about them after many happy years with them. “Once more, O Mountains “Once more, O Mountains of the North, unveil Your brows and lay your cloudy mantles by! And once more, ere the eyes that seek ye fail, Uplift against the blue walls of the sky Your mighty shapes, and let the sunshine weave Its golden net work in your belting woods, Smile down in rainbows from your falling flood, And on your kingly brows at morn and eve Set crowns of fire ! So shall my soul re- ceive Haply the secret of your calm and strength Your unforgotten beauty interfuse My common life, your glorious s ' hares and hues And sun-dropped splendors at my bid- ding come, Loom vast through dreams, and stretch in billowy length From the sea-level of my lowland home!” 24

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this machine was brought to Ips- wich by George Warner and Benja- min Fewkes. This stocking frame was operated in the kitchen of a house located where the South Con- gregational Church now stands. In the meantime machines had been set up, and a small lace fac- tory was in operation in Watertown on the Newton boundary. The suc- cess of this factory aroused the in- terest of Mr. Augustine Heard and others, and the lace industry was in- troduced into Ipswich. The Dr. Philemon Dean house, the present hosiery shop on South Main Street, was purchased by Mr. Heard, and the Boston and Ipswich Lace Com- pany was established. It is under- stood that this factory was in oper- ation in 1824. However, after sev- eral unsuccessful years this indus- try was abandoned. In spite of this failure. Dr. Thom- as Manning, who, it will be remem- bered, was the benevolent donor of the former high school, and others interested in the lace industry founded the New England Lace Company. The Dr. John Manning residence on High Street, where the late Ross house stood, was re- modeled and utilized for a factory. The employees consisted of machin- ists, weavers, warpers, and others ; women and children were employed for embroidering and washing the lace. The same gentlemen who had in- troduced the lace factory now de- cided upon an experiment in silk. Mr. Augustine Heard, who at that time was an important figure in East India shipping and trade, im- ported from China some mulberry moth eggs, which were carefully transported and installed in the lace factory It is said that, to insure warmth, these eggs were carried about the bodies of Chinese sailors during their transportation across the seas. In way of preparation cer- tain rooms were reconstructed to ac- commodate these eggs, and, in ad- dition to this, the south side of the hill running behind the factory was terraced and graded. A great num- ber of mulberry trees were planted on the terraces and their leaves were gathered and fed to the mulberry moths. This experiment probably lasted only a few years and was abandoned when the lace factory failed. Today the graded terraces are still to be seen ; however, there remains only one very crippled mul- berry tree. The trees apparently either died natural deaths or were killed by our inconsistent New Eng- land climate. In the meantime the lace indus- try had had a short-lived success, for the factory shut down in 1832. Because of the unfavorable cli- matic conditions of our own coun- try, the fine thread utilized in mak- ing the lace had been necessarilv imported from England. England, however, attempting to regain the coveted lace industry, in 1832 placed a high export duty on the thread and, on the other hand, al- lowed finished lace goods to be ex- ported free of duty. This bit of business strategy on England’s part quickly put an end to the lace in- dustry in Ipswich, and this failure of the New England Lace Company concluded all attempts made in Ips- wich in this field or in the silk field. The lace industry having been abandoned, many of the former em- 26